Cannibal Holocaust Reviews

I'm not about the watch the film that many thought was snuff. The director was even accused of murder and almost sent to jail because of this film seeming so realistic. That is the the stuff of shock entertainment legend. I have seen bits of this here and there. It's banned in several places and considered to be a movie that should be avoided. They have several edited versions now that cut some gruesomeness out. It has many disturbing things about it. I know there will be stuff that really makes me uneasy, but I'm going to watch it anyways to finally get it over with. Afterwards I can finally say I've seen it and never want to again. This will be my first encounter with a Ruggero Deodato film as well as the writers. Now let's get this over with.

One of the creepiest elements of this is the score. It's so melodic and peaceful even as some of the more grotesque pieces of the story happen. There were a few moments that the noise was a bit annoying. The first half has a handful of brutal things happen, but the second half is where it proves to be one of the most disturbing films. The stuff with the animals was pretty sad, but they did give the natives the animals as food. It's still pretty disturbing how it happens though. My main concern were the four fairly graphic rape scenes. The first one while quite disturbing was the only one that really pertained to the story. The rest of them were just to add shock value. I do wonder though if the girl on the spike was the one the guys of the film crew raped. Did they put her on the spike themselves or did the tribe do it after the incident. I can see why in some spots people thought this was real. The make-up and special effects team did a superb job at realism. Whereas Green Inferno from last year that pays homage to this is quite unrealistic. The ending kind of reminds me of zombie films where you have to wonder. It was different than I had expected though. Kind of like the reverse Full Metal Jacket where the first half and second are completely different tales. Whereas the first half of Full Metal Jacket is the awesome bit, the second half of Cannibal Holocaust is where the really gritty stuff happens.

The Professor is my favorite character. He seems to genuinely care about the well being of people. Chaco and Miguel are also fairly good characters. The film crew though are absolutely despicable. None of them are likable whatsoever. Even Faye doesn't care that another girl is being raped. The only thing she cares about is a waste of film and that her lover doesn't join in. They rape, commit mass murder, brutalize animals for fun (not just for food). Alan even admires a dead girl on a stake whom I think is the girl they raped. They got an eye for an eye. Honestly I would say they deserved what they got.

The story was good albeit quite disturbing. Most of the characters are not really all that likable.The question it asks still pertains to the way society is. You constantly wonder about that to this day. It does feel kind of realistic more so than the way they do gore and such these days. I can see why they say this should be avoided or watched only once. I don't see how anyone could watch all of this more than once. Now I can say I've watched this and never have to go through it again.

The worst movie I've ever seen in my entire life. There's no point in killing animals and offending people who have watched it with disturbing scenes of people being killed. The actings were horrible, the story awful and the soundtrack very dispensable. To sum up, natives shouldn't be shown on this way, it's a fake reality maden just to impress dumb people

If there’s ever been a film that had a disturbing impact on me, Cannibal Holocaust is undoubtedly the one. While I’ve seen plenty of borderline torture porn’s filled with a plethora of grotesque scenes, Holocaust brings that to the table, but does NOT hold back, showing things even a killer himself wouldn’t be able to handle. That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but see if for yourself to gain the full affect of what I’m talking about.

Before even becoming available to the public, Cannibal Holocaust took much criticism, and was banned from many countries and states. Director Ruggero Deodato was accused of actually killing his actors, due to how realistic the brutal deaths were portrayed. He was eventually arrested and put in jail for a minor ten days, and was further suspended of his filmmaking privileges, but not too long afterwards created more pictures. His footage was proven to be only just a movie, not real slaughters, as he went to court to prove his innocence. However, a lot of people around the world still aren’t exactly happy with this man, finding his film to be plain disrespectful and inappropriate. Having said that, some of the scenes in Holocaust actually are authentic, including the few animal killings they shot. The crew was able to get away with it due to the lack of law authority in that area, and the director just said “what the heck, let’s make this look real”, and went forward with the scenes. I couldn’t stand the actual murders of native animals, including the giant turtle, in which was the most brutal, gut-wrenching thing to watch throughout the duration of the movie, as the documentary crew dragged it out of the river, cutting it open down to it’s complete insides……and eating every bit of it. There are many other disturbing things throughout the movie, but that one really got to me.

Surprisingly, the story in Cannibal Holocaust is somewhat deep, and much larger than first appearing. Going into it I was thinking it would be some people simply roaming into the jungle, running into some cannibalistic natives, who eventually would kill and eat them. While that may be true, Holocaust actually features three main storylines. The documentary crew, that travels to a jungle, with the goal of creating another controversial movie. And then you have the office of film distribution, including the man who recovered the crew’s lost footage, and the group who went deep into the jungle to find out what in the heck was going on. Each of the three are pretty equally split up, and that makes Holocaust seem less like a “snuff” film. Towards the middle of the film I was questioning myself about who was in the wrong. Are the cannibals the ones who really deserve so much criticism, or the horrible, idiotic people who antagonized the natives, rummaging through their homes, killing their meals (animals), and completely ruining their culture? It’s a tough decision, and had me thinking.

I sort of regret saying this, but I highly enjoyed Cannibal Holocaust. Yes, the whole premise is unbelievably wrong, disturbing and massively disrespectful, but I love horror films, and I found this one a notch smarter than a lot of the films out right now. Once you get past the grotesque visuals, you’ll realize that it actually has more to it, including somewhat of a history lesson. I most definitely wouldn’t recommend this flick, as most who see it will undoubtedly be immediately turned away, and I don’t blame them, because it truly is a SICK film beyond words, and most will be shocked. “The most controversial movie ever made” actually turned out to be good, from my perspective. I’ll probably get trashed for liking this, but I don’t mind.

7.5/10

i watched this at college after a friend lent me a dodgy looking VHS tape and at the time didnt know if it was a snuff movie - serious!!. really well done in respect of Raw - the effects are jaw dropping and you will have that air of - "is that real?"

Yes, a revenge flick, my most favorite meta-genre, but good enough to be better than most. What I like best about this movie is the format in which it's told. Here's the high level overview, copied and pasted directly from Wikipedia.org...

"...the movie tells the story of four documentarians who journey deep into the jungle to film indigenous tribes. Two months later, after they fail to return, famous anthropologist Harold Monroe travels on a rescue mission to find the group. Eventually, he recovers and views their lost cans of film, which reveal the missing filmmakers' fate."

(Their fate is pretty obvious, btw.) In any case, the format gave it a true sense of reality as all you know about the four filmmakers is what you see as you watch the films with Mr. Monroe, the anthropologist.

It's a fascinating film, but heed the warnings! It really is as graphic and disturbing as they say and there are scenes of actual animal death. Also, I highly recommend reading the rest of the Wikipedia article. This movie knocked people off their asses back in the day!